Voicemail Dilemma

I have realized that I hate talking to machines. Well, it is not a particular hobby of mine, talking to machines. I mean telephone and cellphone answering machines, my own and also of those who are too busy to pick up or are just plain lazy to talk and let the machine answer the phone instead. Every time I have left a message, I have stammered, stuttered, forgotten what I had to say or just made a total mess of what I was going to say. It always seems that I am talking against a clock ticking and I have to say all that I had intended in my phone conversation within 30 seconds or less. Of course, the clock is in my head as I don’t remember reading any voicemail answering guide that mentioned that the message has to be delivered in 30 seconds or less. I have never tried leaving any long messages. Who knows, after a few minutes, the machine might say something rude and cut me off mid-sentence. Imagine the ignominy of being rebuffed by the voicemail box!

I also hate configuring my mailbox to ask people to leave a message when I’m too busy or too lazy to answer my phone. I come across as either too earnest or too impolite in these messages. I was even told once that my voicemail message is so rude that the person concerned was hesitant to leave a message. Well, it was nothing more than a statement containing my name, the fact that I was not able to take the call and a request to call me back later or leave a message. How rude can this 30 second sound byte be? Anyways, just sometime back, I was setting up my room’s phone system and after many recordings and re-recordings, I am still not satisfied with the mailbox message. I can’t even guarantee that it sounds like me.

I’m not sure what is it about machines that makes me tongue-tied and hesitant. Though, I must admit, at times I have made some calls and prayed that I got the machine, as I was reluctant to talk to the person and would rather leave a message to prove that I had called!